Magnetic head assemblies that fly relative to magnetic disks have been used extensively. The objectives for improving the transducing relationship between a magnetic transducer and a magnetic disk include a close spacing between the transducer and the disk, and to maintain such spacing constant. The close spacing, when used with very narrow transducing gaps and very thin magnetic record films, allows short wave length, high frequency signals to be recorded, thereby affording high density, high storage capacity recording.
In accessing type disk drives, for example, the flying height of the magnetic head assembly varies as the head is moved radially to different data tracks because the linear speed of the rotating disk at the outer tracks is greater than that at the inner tracks. To compensate for these variations in flying height, different magnitudes of write current must be used for different radial zones to obtain a substantially constant signal amplitude of the recorded data. Therefore, a constant head to disk spacing is desirable to reduce the requirements for such compensation.
Some presently known magnetic disk files operate in a start-stop contact mode, i.e., the magnetic heads are in contact with the magnetic disk surface when the disk starts to rotate and when the disk rotational speed approaches and reaches zero. It is apparent that the longer it takes for the heads to lose contact with the disk surface, the more wear and shorter usage life of the heads will result.